Britain’s Mail on Sunday reported that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair had attacked his successor Gordon Brown’s strategy as lamentable and warned the new prime minister his politics were leading to disaster.
Publication of the document, which the Mail said was written last year, adds to the insistent questions about Brown’s leadership coming from within his own party, which has suffered a string of embarrassing electoral defeats.
The memo complained that Brown had trashed the policies of the government in which he and Blair served together for a decade, effectively shooting himself in the foot.
“We dissed our own record,” the Mail quoted Blair as saying. “Instead of saying we are building on the achievements, confronting new challenges we joined in the attack on our own record — a fatal mistake if we do not correct it.”
Brown’s attempt to shake off Blair’s legacy was “a lamentable confusion of tactics and strategy,” the former prime minister was quoted as saying, adding that the move had worked to empower their opposition rival, Conservative leader David Cameron.
The Mail did not say how it obtained the memo or specify exactly when it was drafted or to whom it was addressed, saying only that it was written in the wake of the Labour Party’s annual conference in September. It said a less adversarial version of the memo was sent to Brown, but did not say when or provide any further details on that document.
Brown’s Downing Street Office refused comment on the report and Blair’s spokesman, Matthew Doyle, did not return calls or an e-mail seeking a reaction to the article.
“I am passing this message to GB [Gordon Brown] — not in these terms — and will try to help; but at present, there is every indication that the lessons will not be learnt,” Blair was quoted as saying.
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